1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to means for allowing a user to carry a portable phone on his body while out of the home or office and, more particularly, to a belt holder used for holding a portable phone on a waist belt, the holder being designed to have a simple construction and safely hold a portable phone.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Portable phones, such as cellular phones or PCS phones developed in accordance with the growth of information and communication industry, are widely and generally used by people in recent years. Such portable phones have been provided with multi-functions capable of satisfying consumers' desires and this makes the portable phones somewhat expensive.
Most users want to safely and easily carry such expensive portable phones without having any fear of losing them while out of the home or office. In an effort to meet such desire of users, several types of belt holders are proposed to allow the users to carry the portable phone on their waist belts.
FIG. 1 shows the construction of a typical belt holder for portable phones.
As shown in the drawing, the typical holder for portable phones comprises a cover plate 1, a locking piece 5, a clip 8, a pate spring 9, a locker 13, and a compression coil spring 15. The cover plate 1 has a hole 3 at its lower center. A spring seat 4 is formed on the cover plate 1 at a position above the hole 3, thus seating the coil spring 15 on the cover plate 1. A locking shoulder 2 is formed at each side wall of the cover plate 1. On the other hand, the locking piece 5 has a locking projection 6 which is movably inserted in the hole 3 of the cover plate 1. An extension part 7 is formed at each side portion of the above locking piece 5. The clip 8 is assembled with the back of the cover plate 1, thus forming a housing of the holder. The plate spring 9 has a mount 10 at its top portion, so that the spring 9 is attached to the inside wall of the clip 8 at said mount 10. The lower end of the plate spring 9 is longitudinally slitted at two symmetric positions, thus having one push flap 12 at the center and two locking flaps 11 at both sides. The push flap 12 of the plate spring 9 elastically supports the back of the locking piece 5, thus normally biasing the locking piece 5 in a direction toward the outside of the cover plate 1. On the other hand, the two locking flaps 11 of the plate spring 9 engage with the two locking shoulders 2 of the cover plate 1, respectively. The locker 13, having a slitted and sharpened end 14 at its lower end, is positioned in the holder so as to vertically pass between the cover plate 1 and the two extension parts 7 of the locking piece 5. The locker 13 thus selectively biases the locking projection 6 of the locking piece 5 in a direction toward the inside of the cover plate 1. The compression coil spring 15 is seated between the locker 13 and the seat 4 of the cover plate 1, thus normally biasing the locker 13 upwardly.
When it is necessary to hold a portable phone on the holder, a locking button 16, provided on the portable phone or a phone case, is fitted into a vertical slot of the cover plate 1 from the top to the bottom by pushing the phone downwardly. In such a case, the locking button 16 presses the locking projection 6 of the locking piece 5 rearwardly while the button 16 passes over the projection 6. When the button 16 is finally seated in a predetermined position of the slot of the cover plate 1 with the projection 6 of the locking piece 5 being aligned with a locking slot 17 of the button 16, the locking piece 5 elastically returns to its original position by the pus h flap 12 of the plate spring 9. The locking projection 6 thus holds the locking button 16 and this allows the portable phone to be held on the holder.
In order to remove the portable phone from the holder as desired, the locker 13 is pressed down by a user so as to insert the sharpened end 14 of the locker 13 into between the cover plate 1 and the extension parts 7 of the locking piece 5. In such a case, the sharpened end 14 of the locker 13 biases the extension parts 7 of the locking piece 5 in a direction toward the inside of the cover plate 1. The locking projection 6 of the piece 5 is thus released from the locking slot 17 of the button 16 and this allows the locking button 16 of the portable phone to be removable from the holder.
However, the above holder is problematic in that it necessarily includes two types of springs: a plate spring 9 and a compression coil spring 15 used for respectively biasing the locking piece 5 and the locker 13 so as to allow them to selectively return to their original positions. Such two types of springs 9 and 15 increase the cost of the holder and complicate the process of manufacturing the holder. In addition, the above holder is designed to make the sharpened end 14 of the locker 13 repeatedly push the extension parts 7 of the locking piece 5, so that the extension parts 7, made of synthetic resin, may be undesirably broken, forcing a user to purchase a new holder.
It is also necessary for holders for portable phones to almost completely prevent the locking button 16 of a portable phone from being unexpectedly removed from a holder. That is, the holder must be designed to only allow the locking button 16 of a phone to be removed from the holder when the locking button 16 is released from the locking piece 5 by pressing the locker 13 downwardly.
However, the above-mentioned holder is problematic in that it sometimes fails to safely hold a portable phone, thus allowing the portable phone to be undesirably removed from the holder even when the locker 13 is not operated by a user.
That is, when a user, with a portable phone being held on his waist belt using such a holder, sits on a chair, the lower end of the phone is pressed against the pelvis of the user with the locking button 16 of the phone forcibly pressing the projection 6 of the locking piece 5. Therefore, the locking button 16 may be partially abraded at a position around the locking slot 17 or the front edge of the locking projection 6 may be abraded. This allows the portable phone to be unexpectedly removed from the holder, in which case the phone may be lost. The holder thus sometimes forces a user to purchase a new portable phone.